Boat Maintenance?

[east tx skier]

I'll throw in one piece of advice that hasn't been mentioned yet.  Whether it's paper or metal, clean your flame arrestor at least once per year.  I do mine each spring.  With the metal ones, it's easy.  Just spray them from the inside out with carburetor cleaner and let them dry (a long time) before reinstalling.  Those things get so gummed up, it's amazing these boats can still get up to ski speed.  No idea about cleaning (or replacing) the paper one on your MCX.  They tell you how to do it in the manual though.

 

On impellers, if you're not going to change it each spring, at least pull it out when you winterize so it doesn't sit in the pump housing in one position for four months.  They get formed to that odd shape pretty readily and aren't nearly as efficient water movers as a result.  I change mine each spring.  I wish I had taken a picture of my "old" one last month.  It wasn't quite the perfect circle that it used to be.  All the vanes were intact.  But it sure was lopsided.

[Gern Blanston]

Rawly -  I've decided to give the fuel filter a go just to see what it looks like.  I also have about 250 hours on my boat.  In talking to the guy I ordered the replacement filter from, he said I need two specific fuel line "wrenches"  a red and a blue one.  I've not yet been to the auto supply store to know what that means.  apparently the lines are two different sizes so you need those specific "wrenches" or whatever they are.

There's a specific K&N flame arrestor cleaning kit available at many auto supply stores.   It's amazing how much gunk comes out of there!

Tru-Jack thanks for the tip about depressurizing the system.  I'll look for that.

[h2odawg79]

Has anyone ever had a prop get Loose? My Malibu prop "Lock nut" somehow backed out a turn or so and the prop had a little in/out movement... (maybe that was the slight vibration I thought I felt?) Does anyone do annual  prop checks?

[RichardDoane]

Always use a new nylock nut, and make sure the prop is fully seated up the tapered shaft. Props usually don't "come loose", the problem was probably in the prior installation.

[DW]

Loosening of the prop, remember that these boats tend to go both forward and reverse a fair amount, one direction tends to tighten, the other loosen even if it is incrementally small movements around the amount of slop in the key or spline.  Good point on keeping a good nyloc nut installed, nyloc does wear out after only a few removals.

[Gern Blanston]

for what it's worth, for the sake of completeness, I've done some maintenance and I am not entirely convinced that it was necessary.  The ATF fluid was pretty close in color to the stuff I put in it's place.  The fuel filter looked pretty good as well.  The oil and filter were done in the fall.

the trick to the pressurized fuel system was to find that shrader valve and release the pressure there. 

[east tx skier]

I've had a prop come loose because of a nylock nut that should have been replaced.  Makes a horrible racket in reverse.  Works fine going forward. 

[h2odawg79]

Thanx Guy's for the Info.

[Thomas Wayne]

Not mentioned here, but important (in my opinion) is the SS cotter key that prevents the Nyloc nut from unscrewing all the way off the shaft.  Not every boat has this redundancy, but if yours does, make sure the cotter key is in good shape and is stainless-steel.

TW

[h2odawg79]

Ya, the SS pin is good. I'm going to run it a month or so and recheck then replace the NyLoc. As DW said, fwd/reverse countless times and many times even going into rev. and throttling it a bit could be a reasonable factor for an improperly torqued Nut and/or a worn NyLoc as RD stated to work Loose...

Good Stuff Guy's thanx

[ski6jones]

There's some good info on correctcraftfan.com about the tapered fit between prop and shaft.

I followed the procedure referenced below when I upgraded my prop.

Old prop was loose on the shaft.  New prop would have been also but after lapping the prop/shaft it fits good and tight even with the castle nut off.  I got the blue dye at grainger as Napa didn't stock it.  Grainger product was called "High point blue" or some similar.

The entire process took about an hour once I had all the materials in hand.

http://www.correctcraftfan.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12866&KW=proper+prop&PID=145077&title=span-classhighlightproper-span-span-classhighlightprop-span-installation#145077

[eleeski]

Nylock rocks! When the brass corroded away totally, the nylock held my prop on. You guys think I'm kidding - unless you've skied behind that old Nautique...

Eric

[h2odawg79]

Ski6Jones,

I can't access the above link?   Does that link work for anyone else?

[Jim Neely]

It works if you copy and paste it into the address bar.

[ski6jones]

Yeah, sorry.  Not sure why it doesn't work as a link.  Copy and paste to address bar.

[east tx skier]

I just read on the skidim site that for Nautiques with castle nuts, if you replace with a nylock nut, you can't use the cotter pint because the nylock nut will cover the hole. 

 So which would you chose---a nylock nut with no cotter pin or a castle nut with a cotter pin?

[DW]

Thin nyloc nuts are available which should allow both the nut and cotter key to be used.  Castle nut w/ ss cotter key would be my choice.